In 2002, Moore was considered a heavy favorite to win the Oscar for her excellent lead work as Cathy Whitaker in Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven or her equally powerful supporting in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours as Laura Brown. Joining a list that includes Emma Thompson and Sigourney Weaver, she went home empty-handed that fateful night.

Deja-vu: watch out for her upcoming two-category sweep in 2010: First up is a much-discussed lead turn in Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, a sexually-charged drama in which Moore’s tony doctor hires an escort (Amanda Seyfried) to bed her husband. Remember that nobody does “sexually-charged” quite like Moore. This is the woman who gave us Boogie Nights’ Amber Waves and the tawdry, delicious Savage Grace last year, after all.

Then comes the pièce de résistance for the awards season: Moore’s supporting turn in designer-turned-film director Tom Ford’s A Single Man, opposite Colin Firth as a gay man who has just lost his long-time lover.

It seems inevitable that if you haven’t heard of the Scottish band Glasvegas, you probably will soon. Their self-titled debut album was released in January of this year, and had been nominated for the Mercury Prize for best album of 2009, though it lost to Speech DeBelle’s Speech Therapy. Tack on live performances on Carson Daly and Craig Ferguson, playing a set at Lollapalooza and it’s no wonder they found themselves touring with U2 only a handful of months later. To finish up the year, Glasvegas is currently touring with Kings of Leon throughout Canada and some parts of the U.S (dates after the jump).

Yesterday, the band released their second U.S. single, “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry”. The single, which Bono declares is “one of the best songs [he’s] ever heard”, comes paired with a video which features a more intimate look into the mind of lead singer James Allan as he contemplates his inner quarrels with love:

The Feelies, an influential new wave band from the ‘80s, reunited in 2008, and for much of 2009 they’ve been playing shows all across the United States. To coincide with a performance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in New York, the band has rereleased Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth.

Though they were never hugely popular, The Feelies were a big part of the indie music scene in the 1980s. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has listed the band as one of his influences. Named after a pleasure device in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, The Feelies do just that: provide musical pleasure. Album details down below.

Garcia is one of the premiere contemporary storytellers of women’s stories—his Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives are must-sees—this year he directs Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, and the much-buzzed about Annette Bening in an eloquent tale about motherhood. Expect Bening to be at the Oscars again!